Augmented reality (Augmented Reality, AR for short) is an emerging computer application and man-machine interaction technology developed based on virtual reality technologies. Using an object in the real world as a target object, the AR obtains augmented information related to the target object upon recognizing the target object, where the augmented information is, for example, advertisement information, distance information, or one or more other virtual object related to the target object; and then superimposes the target object and the augmented information in a same image by using computer and virtualization technologies, thereby implementing augmented reality.
A method for implementing augmented reality adopted in the prior art is as follows: a user first needs to determine a target object in the real world the user wants to shoot and identify, for example, the user first determines that he or she wants to shoot a specific architecture; then the user selects a category of the target object, focuses on and shoots the target object in the real world, and performs image matching of an obtained picture with a plurality of prestored image templates belonging to the foregoing selected category to identify which image template matches with the target object in the picture, so that identification of the target object is complete; and subsequently the user obtains augmented information corresponding to the identified target object. However, a disadvantage of this manner is that a to-be-shot target object needs to be determined and a category of the target object needs to be selected, before a user shoots the target object. If the user determines to identify the target object after shooting randomly, subsequent operations, such as identification and matching, cannot be executed because the category is not preselected. Therefore, the user's usage may be significantly limited, thereby resulting in a poor user experience, which may be referred to as a serious limitation on use of the augmented reality.